Lady Paisley's Art and Illustration: St. Lucy and the Blindness Blooming

Um, so, this is St. Lucy, patron saint of the blind.

She was commissioned by a friend of mine who straight up went blind out of nowhere a couple of years ago. To my understanding, he woke up fine one day, went to class, and was blind before it was over. No warning whatsoever.

This is my first paid painting commission, which was definitely a learning process. It is also the first realistic portrait I've done combining different reference and such, which was a chore. She is 2 X 2 ft. St. Lucy herself is gouache and marker while her crown and eyeball platter are acrylic. The background is an effect made by acrylic and 91% rubbing alcohol.

The story of St. Lucy is that she was an early Christian who was betrothed through arranged marriage to a pagan. The story goes two different ways. In one she refuses to marry the guy and his soldiers try torturing her, but can find any way to hurt her but to gouge out her eyes. In the version I prefer, the man's favorite thing about her is her beautiful eyes, so she pokes them out with a fork (!) and is like "Here you go. Now leave me alone, I'm married to Jesus." Or something like that.

She is traditionally pictured carrying her eyes around in her platter, but with eyes also in her head. I guess they were restored by God after she died. But I thought it was sort of stupid for her to have them both in a platter and in her head, so I went this route instead. Now, I can't claim to know what it is like to be blind, but the inspiration for the background was the idea that you might see nebulous shapes and colors in the darkness, sort of like when you rub your eyes really hard. I wanted the piece to be hopeful, so I put her in a look out pose, like she was still moving forward, trying to find her way. I hope my friend enjoys it.

Anyhow, I just want to add that I'm not Catholic, so if the story isn't entirely correct, I apologize.

Here are some WIP pics: